Sure it is mac. People can only use so much money and truthfully how much more do the Walton's need?

Give some back to those who need it.

The silly bit is that if everyone was in a position to have some discretionary spending the Waltons would make even more money.

Found this VERY interesting graphic comparing average Costco pay/benefits to average Sam's pay/benefits on my Facebook feed ~ Sooz

Wow, that's interesting. Thanks, Sooz.

I do feel compelled to point out, though, that a lot of stuff that circulates on Facebook just ain't true. We used to have to be wary of things that our friends e-mailed to us, now we have to be wary of things people post on Facebook.

I'd still like to see something more official that tells us how much Costco employees earn.

I agree about factoring in some "iffiness" in "internet truth" ~ I'm guessing the information about ANY national chain varies greatly from state to state and from locale to locale ~ but by using averages, we can see trends ~ what the graphic tells me is the TRUTH in "taking care of your employees benefits your bottom line", not the polar opposite [which is what some want us to believe] ~

Sooz

Also, there are different kinds of averages. The chart refers to "Average Hourly Wage," but doesn't specify what kind of average. Is it the mean, median, or mode?

Let's say there are 9 employees earning $10/hour, one supervisor earning $20/hour, and one manager earning $40/hour.

Mean:
Add up the total number of wages and divide by the number of employees.
$10 + $10 + $10 + $10+ $10 + $10 + $10 + $10 + $10 + $20 + $40
10+10+10+10+10+10+10+10+10+20+40 = 150/11= $13.64
Mean average is $13.64/hr.

Median (middle):
Line up the salaries from lowest to highest and it's the one in the middle: $10
Mean average is $10/hr.

Mode (most frequent):
9 at $10, 1 at $20, and 1 at $40. The most frequent is $10.
Mode average is $10/hr.

Usually, people use the mean average. As you can see from the above example, almost everyone earns $10, yet the average salary came out to be $13.64/hour. Interestingly, the chart says that the average hourly wage at Costco is $15.97/hr, and we know that the top execs. make a lot of money, which is going to pull the average up. What we really want to know is what the mode average is.

To begin with, mean and average aren't the same thing.
They never have been.

Mean is a type of average. As I explained in my post, the word "average" alone really means nothing unless we know what type of average. There are three types of averages:
1) Mean
2) Median
3) Mode

Nice dodge.
I'll have to ensure to "quote" your words in the future.

Nice dodge about what?!

You said, "mean and average aren't the same thing." I explained that "mean" is a type of average.

I didn't dodge anything.

Modified post.

What are you talking about?! Nothing has been modified. I have no idea what you are talking about. If you have something to say, then say it.

I wrote a detailed post explaining the three types of averages.

Then you said:


Uh, yes, mean and average ARE the same thing. If you don't believe they are, then explain it to us. What is the difference between mean and average?!

Oskar is just the average mean guy.

Sheesh. And they call me a Grinch...

The average of a series of n numbers is the sum of those numbers divided by n. That's the only correct definition of the word, when talking about numeric values. Average is not a generic term describing a class of numeric relationships. It is distinct from the terms "mean" and "median".

Agree, gramps, and that was my obvious point.
IMO, the lack of precision in language, especially USian English, has lead to all kinds of major problems.

er...I think you meant to type "led".

What do light emitting diodes have to do with it?

That kind of average is called the mean average.

I explained that:

There are also two other kinds of averages:
* Median Average (line up all the averages in order, the median average is the one in the middle).
* Mode Average (most frequent)